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Access to Clean Water

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Access to Clean Water

One condition of poverty that China struggles with is providing it's citizens clean water. It's logical- life without clean water means a life exposed to preventable diseases, human and industrial waste. It's a life of danger. In China today, 39 million people do not have access to clean wate, approximately the same number of people without access to clean water in the whole African continent.

China has two major problems relating to the lack of sufficient water- there simply isn't enough to go around, and most of the available water is being contaminated.

China is home to the fourth-largest reserves of natural fresh water in the world, yet it has a booming population divide it amongst. Therefore, it has the the second-lowest per capita water holdings in the world, of 2,222 cubic meters of the world's average.

Urban development also directly affects the water condition. "In 2005, millions of people in China were left without water after a major leak from a chemical factory polluted their rivers. The water supply in the city of Harbin, the capital of the Heilongjiang Province in the northeast China, contained high levels of benzene, a poisonous chemical, as a result of the explosion at the chemical plant. The lives of 3.4 million people were in danger."

Man-made and natural pollution often contaminates natural water sources. Florine, arsenic, and other organic pollutants are often responsible for making the water unsafe to consume. Yet, millions of people across the nation still rely on these sources of water, putting themselves at risk for high blood pressure, neurological diseases, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and tooth loss.